‘He is reaping the rewards’ - James Ford praises four-try hero Connor Wynne in Featherstone Rovers’ Championship win over Halifax Panthers

In-form Wynne took his tally to eight tries in three games after Ford left him out of the side at the start of the season.

And his three tries in a blister 11-minute spell after Gareth Gale had been sent off on the hour-mark proved decisive against a Panthers side which had plenty of chances to end a dismal run of form - which now stretches to four consecutive league defeats.

Head coach Ford said: “I am pleased to get the win in the end. I thought we showed a load of resilience to find ways to turn things our way when we went down to 12 men.

“But there are lots of areas of improvement in the performance I thought. We didn’t do what we planned and spoke about doing for long enough periods and we gave Halifax far too many opportunities to be in the game. That is the disappointing element.

“On the back of that, they have got a load of class players, so for us to give loads of class players opportunities and still come out comfortable winners just shows the toughness of my team and the togetherness of my team.”

He added: “The boys clicked into gear (after the red card) and started playing with the intent and purpose that we spoke about playing with at the start of the game.

“It is a red card, I have no qualms with it.”

“We scored some nice, reactive individual tries which is good that we have got that in us. Everybody who has watched us throughout the season knows that we have got some dangerous individuals but we need to get better at the nuts and bolts of the game.”

On the performance of Wynne, Ford said:

“I am pleased for Connor. If you play on the wing you can score four tries without particularly playing well but he did alright today. He won us a couple of penalties in back fields which is part of his role and there were plenty of carries.

“I am really pleased with his response. He was out of the team at the start of the season, he didn’t deserve to be in it with some of the choices he was making and I had absolutely no intention of putting him back in until he changed what he was doing.

“He has done and he is reaping the rewards now for his choices. I am really, really pleased for him and I hope this reinforces some of the stuff I have been talking about and he keeps doing it.”

Rovers, who have now won four on the trot, have a week off due to the semi-finals of the 1895 Cup next weekend but Ford believes the break has come at the right time as he prepares to get his troops ready for Dewsbury Rams in round 8.

He said: “It’s one game at a time but we have a week off now which gives us a chance to get some bodies back and we will aim to be better than that against Dewsbury.

“We have needed some time off for a couple of weeks. We have been running on empty for a while. These lads just keep turning up and giving their all for us. They need some time to refresh.”